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STILL STRONG AT 90 YEARS OLD

23.06.2010 10:53:15 - By Busoperators.org

STILL STRONG AT 90 YEARS OLD Close

Tucked into a cosy village community in deepest Essex, Lodge Coaches has become part of the rural scenery. It celebrates 90 years in business this summer, but it's a business which has grown, and still has ambition. Busoperators.org goes to investigate.
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: I suppose the first question I have to ask about Lodge Coaches is how it has survived for so long?
Chris Lodge: I think because, thoughout the 90 years, we have adapted to cover every aspect of the coach business. Right now, we have a tour and excursion programme, vintage coach hire, a bus service, contract hire for schools and private hire. You have to follow the demand.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What is currently the core of your work?
Chris Lodge: It's our tours and excursions programme. That said, two years ago that formed the vast majority of our business but recently the schools contract side has grown. Then county council used to tender each route but now tenders an entire school's coach transport in one contract. For that reason, our home-to-school fleet has doubled in four years – it's become a huge part of our business.

New Challenges in School Transport
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Does that mean it contributes a big proportion of the profit?
Chris Lodge: Not really. It's about 30 per cent of our £2.5 million turnover but the profit margin is static... and it's a modest margin. That said, in 2004 were were making no money at all from schools contracts. Today, 50 per cent of our turnover comes from holidays and excursions, and the remaining 20 per cent from private hire.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How else has the home-to-school transport market changed?
Chris Lodge: These days, we work much more closely with the local authorities. It is time-consuming but it helps a great deal – the discussions involve everyone and what we do is better understood.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: But you were saying there's more to it than just turning up with an empty bus every morning?
Chris Lodge: Yes, that's right. These days, we have to supply all the bus passes to the children and post them out. Our drivers have to be checked with the Criminal Records Bureau. We have to fit eight CCTV cameras to our double-deck buses – two exterior cameras and six inside. We are not just supplying transport.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: That seems like a lot of CCTV cameras.
Chris Lodge: Yes. We have to have one facing the driver and install a microphone to record what is said. It's a very sad fact that school bus drivers aren't allowed to be friendly, caring people these days. If they give the children gifts, they are accused of having dubious reasons for being kind to them. They are even blackmailed by children. Other than giving safety instructions, we have to tell our drivers not to talk to the children. It's very sad indeed.
But I don't want to be too negative. The police have been enormously helpful in the last three years. We had to get the police involved with our problems but they've been tremendous. As one said, if you have a slashed seat, that means there's a knife on board, and that's a very serious matter.
Lodge repaints many operators' coaches

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Has anything else changed in schools transport?
Chris Lodge: We have decided to upgrade our schools fleet with vehicles that can perform other duties. In particular, we need our fleet to be London Low Emission Zone compliant [Euro 3 or better] because much of our rail replacement and weekend work goes into London.

Driver Jobs on Increasing Demand
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How hard is it to recruit drivers at the moment?
Chris Lodge: You certainly have to offer them more than just schools if you want to keep drivers. We also do rail replacement coach services at weekends and have odd jobs here and there. In the main, recent applicants have tended to be bus drivers wanting to move to coach driving. But there are plenty of applicants for the jobs.
Two years ago, we had to advertise to get applicants, and for two jobs, I had 23 applications. I now have a stack of 40 applications from people who have written to us asking about employment.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do you organise your own driver training?
Chris Lodge: Yes, we offer our drivers seven hours a year to achieve their driving CPC qualification. My fellow director Robert Lodge uses Alec Horner of Minimise Your Risk and other operators' drivers come over to take the same training. We are also producing a driver's handbook. The draft version came from another company but we are slowly adjusting it to suit our driving team.
Incidentally, when we moved this business from its original site in the village of High Easter to the current location, one of the planning conditions from the council was that we had to build a Post Office, which is right in the entrance to the depot. It's a tearoom, as well, and it's ideal for getting the drivers together on training sessions.
Lodge's holiday brochure

Excursion Business Loosing Blood
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How is the tour and excursion business changing?
Chris Lodge: We are beginning to struggle with excursions. I think the older generation is starting to die off and there is no younger generation of excursion customers coming along. Like all coach operators, we must try to target a younger market.
You get a slightly younger market when you run theatre trips but we don't, mainly because there's an operator in Chelmsford who does a lot in this area. We have tried concert travel, to music events, but the problem is that you cannot return unsold tickets. We got caught for £3,000-plus in tickets last year.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Has the global recession hit your target market at all?
Chris Lodge: Oh yes. Many of the people around here are upmarket – returned city workers with investments. Those investments were their holiday fund and they now have less to spend. They still book a holiday, but they then book fewer excursions with us.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Is there any other answer to this problem?
Chris Lodge: Well, we have advertised a lot more in the last 18 months and have been marketing ourselves in person with display stands in local town centres. We also place advertisements on our double-decks. We have recently been selling our excursions into two other local towns.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What has been the result of your efforts this year?
Chris Lodge: Late bookings are now a major feature of our holiday sales – people sometimes book just a few days before departure. We always had a few but there are definitely more late bookings, which is far from ideal.
Bedford OB and Duple Vega

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do you have an on-line booking system for holidays?
Chris Lodge: No, not yet but we have our reasons. For example, if you have on-line seat selection, some people 'hog' the choice seats, such as the first row. If customers have to call the office to book, we can spread the seat allocation more fairly – we like to 'reward' regular customers with their favourite seats from time to time.
But I accept that on-line systems have their advantages in collecting email addresses and data. We have a huge amount of information on our office system but we need to find some time to make that information work for us.
Bedford OB interior

Vintage Buses: A Worthy Investment
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Are there any other parts of your business you would like to tell us about?
Chris Lodge: My cousin and fellow director Andrew Lodge has rebuilt three vintage coaches – a Duple YMT which we've owned from new, a 1956 Duple Vega and a 1949 Duple Bedford OB. They aren't just for show – they are working vehicles, hired for weddings and events.
They have been very busy recently and attract high rate of hire. Most famously, the Vega was used in a prequel to the UK TV comedy Only Fools and Horses, Rock and Chips, when the cast take a 'Jolly Boys' seaside trip to Margate. After that had been shown on TV, we organised a couple of excursions down to Margate for fish and chips. They were very popular.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How is Lodge Coaches celebrating its 90 years in business?
Chris Lodge: We have organised an open day with vintage vehicle running in August. We are very proud of the progress we have made with the company.

Profile: Lodge Coaches (JW Lodge & Sons)Date of establishment (as a vehicle operator): 1920
Main activities: UK and European tours, day tours, home-to-school transport, private hire, vintage coach hire
Size: 8 full-time driers and 3 office staff, 15 part-time staff. Three directors (Chris, Andrew and Robert Lodge). Annual turnover £2.5m.
Headquarters: Lodge Coaches, The Garage, High Easter, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 4QR
Fleet: 27 vehicles, including 6 touring coaches, 7 standard coaches, 11 buses, and three vintage coaches. Touring coaches are Mercedes-Benz or Setra..

Profile: Chris Lodge

49, lives near High Easter with wife and two children.
Company: Lodge Coaches
Position: Director
Career: Left school aged 15, apprenticed at a racing car builder. Worked at a car franchise then joined the family business first as a vehicle technician then later took PCV driving test to do some driving duties before joining the management team.

ARRIVA UK GOES MOBILE WITH M-TICKETS

23.02.2010 11:12:39 - By Busoperators.org

ARRIVA UK GOES MOBILE WITH M-TICKETS Close

Buying tickets by mobile phone is one thing. But on Arriva buses, your mobile phone itself can be your ticket. Busoperators.org finds out how from marketing manager Mike Woodhouse.
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Tell us a little about Arriva Bus?
Mike: Worldwide, Arriva is one of the largest private sector providers of passenger transport in Europe, employing more than 44,000 people and providing more than one billion passenger journeys every year. Arriva provides transport services including buses, trains, commuter coaches and water buses, and operates in Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How do you see Arriva's position in the UK?
Mike: In the UK, Arriva Bus is one of five very large bus companies. The largest is First, Stagecoach is possibly second biggest and Arriva is about third. We are, for example, the largest operator for Transport for London. We have restructured and now have eight regional companies, spread from Scotland to the south coach of England.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How, if at all, has the current economic climate affected Arriva Bus, both before and after the crisis broke?
Mike: The recession bit in 2008 but we didn't see much of the main impact. The High Street (retail sales in towns) was hit hard so this did have some impact, but since then, the fact that people are feeling the pinch is having a positive impact, because they are using their cars less.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: So does Arriva Bus have a positive environmental impact?
Mike: My job is to get more people to use buses, so by definition, we deliver a lower carbon footprint. As fewer cars fill the roads, bus travel times are reduced, making bus travel more attractive. It's a virtuous circle. If drivers replaced just one in 25 car journeys with a bus ride, there would be a billion fewer car journeys.
One of the longest-running express coach services in London, Greenline, is run by Arriva

One of the longest-running express coach services in London, Greenline, is run by Arriva

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do you personally do anything to reduce your carbon emissions?
Mike: Yes. Take a bus to the local town from my home.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: But does Arriva Bus have a policy of reducing emissions?
Mike: Of course, but we could have all new buses with green engines and everything else but, if we are stuck in the same traffic jam as everyone else, it will make little difference to overall emissions.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Speeding buses through the traffic is something that can be aided by cashless ticketing. Can you tell us a little about m-ticket – Arriva's new mobile phone ticket system?
Mike: The start was on Kent Fastrack – a bus priority route system in Kent. It had become clear four or five years ago that tickets could end up being on mobile phones. So we tried a system where the user was sent a barcode in a text which was then scanned to get on and off the bus. We got it running in February 2008 using 14 buses with two scanners each – on the entry and exit doors.
Purchasing tickets is a simple operation

Purchasing tickets is a simple operation

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How well did it work?
Mike: The technology was fine and a lot of people signed up to use it, but the take up of use was quite low. People didn't like the idea of scanning on to and off the bus. Also, the barcode didn't tell them whether they had a valid ticket or not, so they felt uncertain when boarding.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Did that halt the trial?
Mike: Yes. We decided it wasn't suitable for roll-out to the whole fleet. But we liked the principle. We thought the scanners were too expensive so what we wanted was a ticket like you get printed on paper, but on a mobile phone. In fact, you can do the whole process on your phone, including registering, which downloads a Java application to your phone.
The passenger can select the region, period and zone of travel as well as the type of ticket

The passenger can select the region, period and zone of travel as well as the type of ticket

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: And you got what you wanted?
Mike: Yes. We tested it in Yorkshire last summer and the m-ticket system is now on a national roll-out. The benefits for us include faster boarding which makes sure our buses can be on time. It also appeals to our student commuters. From the customer's point of view it's convenient and flexible. For example, the customer can buy an all-day ticket for one of our networks and store it on the phone. They don't have to activate it until the day they want to travel. If their plans change, it is still valid.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How is the ticket checked?
Mike: The ticket is checked visually by the driver, when the passenger shows him the mobile phone screen. To prevent fraud, there is a unique number generated on the ticket which the driver can check, and the design has some complex elements which would be tricky to copy. The customers like it because it is just what they are used to – a ticket, with details of what it is. The passenger can preview the ticket

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How does the customer pay for travel?
Mike: It's a batch process at the moment. They can add credit from a debit or credit card or via an Arriva travel shop. 90 per cent are topping up with their card. It may be possible in future for the charge to be added to their phone bill. The m-ticket is also a value proposal; four-weekly tickets will always be 10 per cent cheaper.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How is m-ticket doing where you have launched it?
Mike: In the three months since launch, we have 8,000 people registered and they have taken 50,000 journeys. It's my job to market it but my experience tells me it will be a slow burner – it will take a little time to catch on. From Arriva's point of view, it's a relatively small investment, with no additional infrastructure such as card readers and scanners. It's surprisingly low cost, low-tech and easy for customers and drivers to understand. We are prepared, too, for changes which comes when mobile phones have proximity readers built into them – a development which is on its way.
The m-ticket

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Is this technology unique to Arriva?
Mike: At the moment, but we are now telling operators about it and relating our experience of m-ticket. The way our partnership with the software company is structured, the partner takes a small percentage of the revenues and we have no issue with the same system being used elsewhere.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: On a different subject, have you heard about Smart Move?
Mike: Only recently, through busoperators.org.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Which measures do you think would promote and increase the use of buses and coaches?
Mike: The most important thing, in my view, is to encourage a partnership approach, working more closely with local government and with other operators. Keeping fares low is also important.

Profile: Mike Woodhouse Mike Woodhouse has driven m-ticket since its inception

Mike Woodhouse has driven m-ticket since its inception

44, Lives in Leicestershire with wife and 2 children.
Work Experience: Currently Marketing Manager in Arriva UK Bus. Has been a marketing professional for 20 years. Started working for a printing company, and then move into marketing for manufacturing. Joined Arriva in 2003.
Interests: Football and sport

GALLOWAY EUROPEAN

06.10.2009 08:55:31 - By Busoperators.org

GALLOWAY EUROPEAN Close

Galloway European Coachlines has a passion for getting everything right - a policy which has brought its broad spectrum of business. Busoperators.org caught up with David Cattermole, its managing director.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: It’s been a turbulent year for the global economy. What has affected Galloway European Coachlines?
DAVID: Chiefly the Euro exchange rate, which has seen the value of the pound drop. This has led to lower sales of overseas tours. The perception of Europe being costly to visit came just after we saw the cost of fuel rising, and these two factors had some effect on us.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What effect did the Euro’s strength have on you?
DAVID: There has been a downturn in bookings for European tours, though we can withstand that. It’s definitely the strength of the Euro that is causing this.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Tours are not your only source of income. Could you tell us about the other areas of Galloway’s business?
DAVID: Galloway’s origins were as a school tour specialist, formed to market the tours but using an outside operator, County Travel, to do the coach work. Over a period of time the structure of the company changed. We believe our strength is that we now operate the coaches that do this work, so we have greater control of quality than school tour operators who contract their vehicles.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: So the quality of vehicles has an important part to play in the product?
DAVID: Yes, but being responsible for all aspects of the package means we also get feedback from our drivers; we have control of the whole product, and part of that is vehicle quality.
Vehicle quality is very important, says David Cattermole. All of then touring fleet is now air conditioned.

Vehicle quality is very important, says David Cattermole. All of then touring fleet is now air conditioned.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do you have a section of the fleet dedicated to this work?
DAVID: Not really. We believe in getting the highest utilisation possible for all our fleet. We don’t see a future in having a bus just for school work. The school tours use high-quality coaches but we also have a lot of home-to-school contract work, and almost any vehicle available is used on this. Arguably, some of our fleet shouldn’t be doing the work it does.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Doesn’t this fly in the face of the current passion for American-style ‘yellow buses’ dedicated to home-to-school, transport?
DAVID: Yes. Personally, I dread the yellow bus syndrome; I don’t see how it can be a commercially viable system.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Home-to-school transport is notoriously badly paid. Is that what you have found?
DAVID: Not really. We now have 23 home-to-school contracts, 85% of which are with the councils and 15% for private schools. The education authorities are definitely primarily interested in price but school, contract prices have gone in the right direction, I believe because operators are now more aware of the true cost of operating a fleet.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Why has that happened?
DAVID: Our local authorities now demand that potential contract bidders complete a conformity document, examining all aspects of the professionalism of the bus operator. This has weeded out a few of the poor operators.
Galloways retains some older vehicles but home-to-school work is performed with any vehicle available, even new.

Galloways retains some older vehicles but home-to-school work is performed with any vehicle available, even new.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What aspects of operating does the conformity document address?
DAVID: We have now got so many more obligations, such as CPC driver training, Health and Safety audits and much more. Being a fairly large operator, we are lucky we have the structure you need to have to do this. When you think what it would take to start a coach business with all these obligations, it’s quite frightening.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Does the school term dictate the pattern of your work?
DAVID: Yes. It’s 180 days a year dictated by academic timing. We integrate a holiday programme around our schools departures to get maximum fleet utilisation. Making this work fit together with driver work patterns is quite a task. We have five traffic managers - we are a seven-days-a-week business running from 6am to 6.30pm so we need that level of traffic management to provide total support for our operation.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Looking at your school tour brochure, I see some of the trips are quite expensive. Why is this?
DAVID: The cost is down to the amount of content in the tours. We issue study notes which are all based on the current national curriculum. The trips aren’t just holidays, they are field work to accompany the work that is done at school. We believe we provide the best, and our repeat business is something like 90% - teachers who have moved to new schools often come back to us.
Tour drivers like Ian Jacobs often work locally when the 12-day rule intervenes.

Tour drivers like Ian Jacobs often work locally when the 12-day rule intervenes.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What did you think when the industry had to deal with the 12-day drivers’ hours rules?
DAVID: It was astonishing that the European Commission couldn’t see the difference between a truck operation and a coach operation, and we couldn’t make them see the difference. But the industry is quite resilient to change. I was also irritated by the moaners - people who weren’t here when the decisions were being made and who got upset when it arrived. We addressed all the issues quite early on. There has been an expense attached to it but, because we have such a diverse operation, we could put drivers on local work for a day. I know we now have the promise of a reversal of the rule for coach operation but when there is any relaxation, we won’t be going back to the old working patterns; drivers have now learned to appreciate the extra time at home.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: We have also had to deal with the new driver training rules. Has that affected you?
DAVID: The recruitment market has certainly changed, but not because of the training. 18 months ago we ran a recruitment drive, inviting prospective drivers to come and take a look at what we do with open days at local hotels. We had 100 or more drivers come through the doors; it was very successful. But unemployment due to the recession now means we have a waiting list for driving jobs; the entire market has changed within a year. Regards the new training regime, we are well on top of it. Each driver now has two CPC modules and we will have them all through the system by 2012. In my view, it’s high time there was a higher professional qualification and I think it’s very good for the industry.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do drivers have the same view?
DAVID: Almost all of them have welcomed the training. They believe it raises their professionalism, and I believe it’s a sound commercial proposition; your best coach is only as good as your worst driver. We have a Driver Development Programme and have a driver committee of four who represent the driving team and get problems out into the open; it’s a route for them to make their feelings known in open debate.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What other quality disciplines do you have at Galloway?
DAVID: We are a member of CoachMarque - the UK’s quality assurance scheme - and the Guild of British Coach Operators. They both have audit processes which have helped us raise our game.

Profile: Galloway European Coachlines
Galloway Workshop

Date of establishment (as a vehicle operator): 1978
Main activities: Local bus services, National Express Intercity work, educational tours, Private Hire, Rail Replacement, home-to-school transport, UK and European tours, day tours
Size: 115 staff, 75 of which are drivers. Annual turnover £10m.
Headquarters: Galloway European Coachlines, Denters Hill, Mendlesham, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5RR
Other locations: Travel shops in three local towns
Fleet: 67 vehicles, including 9 MPVs, 11 cars, 18 buses, the remainder coaches.. Average fleet age 6 years. Main chassis in fleet: DAF/VDL, Mercedes-Benz. Main bodywork: Van Hool, Plaxton.

Profile: David Cattermole
David Cattermole is part of a three-man management team at Galloways.

David Cattermole is part of a three-man management team at Galloways.

54, lives near Mendlesham with wife and 2 children.
Company: Galloway European
Position: Managing Director
Career: 1970, apprentice motor mechanic with Rex Service Station, a retail garage operating its own taxi and minibuses. Gain qualifications through to ITRE level by attending local College for seven years both day and evening release and held position of foreman prior to moving to Galloway in 1981 as traffic manager. The ensuing years saw the development of the company during which time positions of general manager and director were held. On the retirement of MD, with the support of two colleagues, Roger Stedman and John Miles, in 1997 we bought the business.

CASTLEWAYS COACHES

30.07.2009 09:30:04 - By busoperators.org

CASTLEWAYS COACHES Close

Castleways Coaches is tucked away in the heart of England’s beautiful Cotswolds. Surprisingly, though, tourism isn’t a big feature of its work. Busoperators.org talks to its directors, sister and brother Rowena McCubbin and John Fogarty.
BUSOPERATORS.ORG: When was Castleways founded, and where does it get its name?
JOHN: Castleways has been in business since 1963, starting in Broadway – one of the Cotswolds’ most famous villages – and moving to Wichcombe in 1972. It was founded by our father, Trevor. He was a welder but had done some coach driving. The opportunity to buy Tower Coaches came up and he took it.
The original name comes from Broadway Tower, a famous landmark, and Castleways because we are in Castle Street, with Sudeley Castle just up the road.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How did you come to move?
JOHN: My dad bought Gilletts Coaches on this site because at the time you couldn’t trade privately without a ‘state services’ licence, which Gilletts had. I arrived in 1982. I’m an engineer – a toolmaker - by trade and lived in Holland. I came back to help out and never went back.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How much has the company changed?
JOHN: Back then we had 19 vehicles and did local bus work, holidays and private hire. But in 2002, we decided to finish the holiday programme.
Castleways has a fleet of 12 vehicles comprising of various brands

Castleways has a fleet of 12 vehicles comprising of various brands

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Why was that?
ROWENA: To be honest the tours started to dry up. We were down to six or seven a year by then, but they took some administrative staff to run them. It was quite a gamble to end tours, but it has been fine.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Why do you think passenger numbers dropped so severely?
JOHN: A combination of reasons. Newspaper holiday offers have had quite an impact because they are so cheap. But this is also a very affluent area; coach operators are looked down upon by some locals. Winchcombe is very much a retirement town but everyone has a car. Six years ago, the country was going through an economic boom, which made it even less likely we could sell holidays.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: But you have quite a large coach fleet. What keeps it running?
JOHN: We have a long association with a number of companies who regularly book us. One Japanese company has been using us for many years. We have American alumni aboard, the Smithsonian Institute, Royal Oak Foundation [a New York group which has an alliance with National Trust] and a number of others.
I spoke to one American customer the other day who said that he’d tendered some business to a number of UK coach operators, trying to get pricing, but we were the only company that gave him a quote. Interior of a luxurious coach - Castleways' advertising strategy relies on word-of-mouth referrals

Interior of a luxurious coach - Castleways' advertising strategy relies on word-of-mouth referrals

Importantly, it’s 95% repeat business and most of our new business comes from word-of-mouth referrals. There’s not much emphasis on advertising in this company – we don’t need very much.
We also have a lot of one-off hires because we’re in the Cotswolds, and two public schools in Cheltenham which use us.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: You also have some home-to-school business, I understand.
ROWENA: Yes, we have one school run but we carry a lot of school children on our two service runs – the 606 from Cheltenham to Winchcombe and 559 Willersey-Evesham.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How many services buses do you use?
JOHN: We have three – one Dennis Dart and three Mercedes-Benz Citaros. In fact, we were one of the first operators in the UK to buy Citaros. We are now about to order a new Optare Versa. We have tried other buses but we are impressed with the Citaro. We have complex, rural routes and some rough roads but they manage it well.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How do the children treat the buses?
JOHN: Very well. We have virtually no vandalism even though we carry 120 to 150 children a day – the buses are packed when there is snow on the ground because nobody wants to drive a car to the schools.
We have a great relationship with our schools and we even sponsor the under-11s soccer team locally. During the summer holiday, we offer special low fares so the children can go to Cheltenham.
Service run 606 carries school children from Cheltenham to Winchcombe

Service run 606 carries school children from Cheltenham to Winchcombe

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: In the time you’ve been running Castleways, you must have seen some changes. Has any new legislation caused you any problems?
JOHN: Most tour operators have complained about the new 12-day rest rule but our work pattern means it hasn’t affected us. If we have a problem with anything, it’s keeping up with all the new legislation.
There is just too much Red Tape in this business. So little of it seems to be thought through properly. Take digital tacho. I have no problem with the tacho itself – I actually prefer it – but the manufacturers have nowhere to put it. It should be in a prominent, visible place but it ends up in all kinds of corners.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How has driver retention been in recent times?
JOHN: Recruitment has never been easy. You can get plenty of interviewees but it’s hard to find the calibre of people with the right combination of people skills and confidence.
The shrinking economy has lately increased the number of truck drivers applying to become bus drivers

The shrinking economy has lately increased the number of truck drivers applying to become bus drivers

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Has the new Driver CPC [EU retraining certificate] caused you any problems?
JOHN: Of course, it’s very difficult for some drivers to change their ideas after 40 years but I have no objections to the CPC. It has its good points; it helps professionalism in the industry. I have to say my drivers don’t seem to mind having to do it.
But in my view the industry really needs some for of formal apprenticeship. It should slowly introduce young people to the industry. I’m sure it would generate more pride in what we do.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What standard of driver apply for the jobs you advertise?
ROWENA: In the main they are people in their 50s who have left their job in early retirement, or people in their 20s who are not suited to other jobs.
We are inundated at the moment with truck drivers applying for jobs because of the way the economy has gone. That has never happened here before.
We are always on the look-out for part-time drivers. We believe it’s important to treat other people as you would expect to be treated yourself, so we never judge a book by its cover; we give all applicants a fair hearing.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Are driver salaries attractive enough to keep them in the industry?
JOHN: I think so. Our drivers average £22,000 to £24,000. The hourly rate is £8 but there are special rates for weekends and overtime. We also pay £10 a week towards their commute. They get 28 days’ holiday.
ROWENA: We put our drivers through the usual courses and teach communication skills. Our drivers do stay with us a long time – we have one who has been driving for us for 30 years.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How many drivers do you have?
ROWENA: We have 11 full-time drivers and four part-timers, plus John, who helps out if required.

Profile: Castleways Coaches

Managers: Rowena McCubbin & John Fogarty, brother and sister team who took over the business in 1982
Date of establishment: 1962
Main activities (both at national and international levels): Coach hire and stage carriage
Size: 16 full-time employees, 11 drivers
Headquarters: Castle House, Greet Road, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire GL54 5PU
Other locations: None
Fleet: 12 vehicles. 9 coaches (2x Setra S250, 1x Plaxton Premier/Volvo B7R, 1x Setra S315, 1x Bova Futura 9-metre, 1x Temsa Safari, 1x Sunsundegui Sideral, 1x Caetano Optimo, 1x Setra S210 9-metre. 1x Dennis Dart bus, 2x Mercedes-Benz Citaro 11-metre.)

CONQUERING CAMBRIDGE

22.06.2009 17:11:39 - By busoperators.org

CONQUERING CAMBRIDGE Close

Stagecoach's Andy Campbell runs buses in a university city better known for bicycles. Busoperators.org asks him how the world's longest guided busway, opening this summer, will help commuters get to work in Cambridge and take cars off the road.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: You’ve been managing director at Stagecoach Cambridgeshire since 2004. How has the company changed in this time?
ANDY: It has kept growing. Since 2001, ridership has grown 100% on Cambridge city services. In our other major network, in Peterborough, growth has been 40%.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: How has this been achieved?
ANDY: When I took over we had problems with driver shortages. There was a complex structure for pay and conditions which meant some drivers were getting less pay than others. Stagecoach Cambridge employs drivers of 23 nationalities

Stagecoach Cambridge employs drivers of 23 nationalities

The turnover of drivers was very high and to cope we were being loaned drivers from other Stagecoach companies and hiring agency drivers. I took the extra cash we were spending on agency drivers and put it into giving a proper market rate for all drivers.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What effect did that have?
ANDY: It was definitely the right thing to do. Since then, we have been able to retain drivers, and they are all now based locally despite the expansion of services.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Did you have to recruit foreign drivers to maintain services?
ANDY: We now have 23 different nationalities working for us. At one time, we recruited directly from Poland. We got 10 Polish drivers and trained them but now only two remain on the staff. Once they had trained, they simply left and went to work for higher wages in London.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: What are your current hourly rates of pay?
ANDY: They differ in Cambridge and Peterborough because of the different driving challenges and cost of living, which is very high in Cambridge. In Cambridge the base rate is £9.55 per hour and in Peterborough £8.50 per hour.

City trafficBUSOPERATORS.ORG: You mention the operating conditions in Cambridge. What makes the city difficult? ANDY: Cambridge is a historic city designed for horses and carts, not buses. There are also a very high number of bicycles, which can make driving very difficult. Fortunately, Cambridge has a very pro-active county council and, working in partnership with the council, we have managed to achieve our growth.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Where has the growth been achieved?
ANDY: Cambridge has a very large Park & Ride service, in which parking your car is free but you are charged for the bus ticket. It has really shot up in the last 12 to 18 months since we restructured it by taking out a lot of interim bus stops which were slowing the service down.
Cambridge has restricted access for cars. Buses and taxis can get into the city centre by driving through barriers which are activated by the bus approaching. Car parking is also very expensive.... as much as £20 for the day. You’d have to be mad to try to park in the city centre every day.
It is strange how people think of Park & Ride. When we gave a survey to passengers on the bus, 80% said they weren’t bus users!
These bollards sink into the ground as a bus approaches

These bollards sink into the ground as a bus approaches

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Are Cambridge’s traffic problems now solved? ANDY: It’s much better but there are plans to build 46,000 new homes in the area. We calculate that this will increase journey time on the roads by 40% - we will need 60 more vehicles just to maintain the level of service we have now.
Either the city does more to restrict traffic and ease congestion or it doesn’t build the houses.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Is road pricing, such as the Congestion Charge in London, the answer to this problem?
ANDY: Perhaps but bearing in mind the decision by the people of Manchester and Liverpool not to have congestion charging, I am not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. It may be politically difficult to get such a scheme.
Fortunately, in Cambridge we have a growing number of people who realise that we need to do something. A lot more of the commuters here are switched on to green issues.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Are there any other pressing problems with buses?
ANDY: We desperately need a 21st Century bus station. The one we have, in Drummer Street, is not good for bus operators or passengers. We have offered to make the current station into a green space and move to a better site nearby, but it would mean developing a bowling green and Cambridge is very resistant to losing any green areas. Cambridge drivers get paid more to cope with the difficult driving conditions

Cambridge drivers get paid more to cope with the difficult driving conditions

Guided buswayBUSOPERATORS.ORG: Of course, the good news is that Cambridge will soon have the biggest guided busway in the world. Will this be helpful?
ANDY: Very much. It will relieve traffic on the main road to the West, the A14, which runs parallel to the new busway.
A guided busway uses standard road buses which have small guide wheels fitted to the steering axle. The busway is a 25-kilometre two-lane road with very high kerbs. The small wheels follow these kerbs so the driver does not have to steer. The major advantage is that the road can be much narrower because the buses can be made to pass each other only a few centimetres apart.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: You managed the introduction of guided busway schemes in Yorkshire. Was that valuable experience? ANDY: Yes, but the new scheme is much bigger and the buses do not run alongside cars as they do in Yorkshire. This scheme is more like Adelaide’s guided busway. Passengers will be able to board at two Park & Ride sites. We estimate the journey time from St Ives to Cambridge city centre to be about 33 minutes.

The scheme has a southern section which serves the city’s largest hospital and another Park & Ride site.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: So, the buses on the guided busway will be standard vehicles?
ANDY: No. We have had to commit to five years minimum level of service, with quality thresholds. The scheme gives a very high specification for the buses, and only bus operators who can meet the requirements will be able to use the busway. At present, the three operators are Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, Stagecoach Huntingdon, and Go Whippet.
Our new buses are double-deckers with leather seats, extra legroom and household electric sockets so people can charge their computers and mobile phones. We also have single-deck buses with air conditioning. We would have liked air conditioning on the double-deckers but the extra weight would have meant buying longer tri-axle buses, which would be unsuitable for use around the city centre.

New smartcard schemeBUSOPERATORS.ORG: Does the scheme have any other benefits for you?
ANDY: Yes. It is the springboard for introducing ‘smartcard’ ticketing – an electronic card which stores a cash value. The passenger can just touch it on the ticket machine to deduct the correct fare.
We are trialling smartcards with 100 passengers to start with but I don’t anticipate any problems. Stagecoach now uses ERG ticket systems which are technologically ready for smartcards. Once we have the system running, it will be used throughout the whole of Cambridge, not just on the guided busway.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: You seem to have a lot of confidence in the scheme working well?
ANDY: Yes, I do. I believe it’s another step which will change attitudes to buses. It will switch people on to public transport. And it’s another step up in terms of the quality of public transport. The service will be on a 10-minute frequency all day. We expect it to be a success from the start, but it was designed to help cope with a large housing scheme which has been delayed. Ridership will increase again when that housing is built.
We are so confident it will be a success that we have pencilled in an order for extra buses for next year.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: Do you think the scheme will appeal to the ‘green’ viewpoint?
ANDY: It should. The buses are being run on biodiesel made from recycled food waste – cooking oil, for example.
The Stagecoach group trialled biodiesel on older engines but, since then, we have persuaded our chassis suppliers to set engines up to run on the fuel, and it is working very well.

BUSOPERATORS.ORG: One final question, Andy. Do you have any regrets about your working life?
ANDY: Only that I wished I had joined Stagecoach sooner. The culture here is to leave managers alone to manage their business and, as long as we achieve the budgets we set, that is what happens.
Stagecoach Cambridge is an operating company of Stagecoach plc, one of Britain's largest bus and rail operating companies. Stagecoach also runs the Megabus intercity operation and CoachUSA and Coach Canada in North America, plus a large number of bus sightseeing services including New York Sightseeing. The Cambridge Guided Busway was announced four years ago. Using existing (redundant) rail trackbed, it provides a road dedicated to bus services, using buses which can enter and leave the busway to travel on normal roads. The scheme is run by Cambridgeshire County Council and civil engineering partners BAM Nuttall. The service will use Smartcard cashless ticketing, and the route - from St Ives to Cambridge - incorporates a cycleway. Stagecoach is among three operators who will operate buses along the guided busway. The busway follows the route of the A14 - a congested trunk road which connects the main north-south motorways and roads in England with East Anglia and eastern ports, used heavily by container freight and Cambridge commuters. The busway is expected to reduce car commuter traffic on the A14, reducing delays and road traffic accidents.

Profile: Stagecoach CambridgeshireDate of establishment: 1995
Main activities: Local bus services, National Express Intercity work, City Sightseeing buses
Size: 600 staff, 500 of which are drivers. Annual turnover £34m.
Headquarters: Stagecoach plc, Ruthvenfield Road, Inveralmond Ind Estate, Inveralmond, Perth, PH1 3EE
Address: 100, Cowley Rd, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 0DN
Other locations: Throughout UK, USA
Fleet: 250 buses, including 6 National Express Intercity coaches. Average fleet age 7 years. Main chassis in fleet: Volvo, MAN, Scania. Main bodywork: ADL, Wrightbus.
Andy Campbell

Profile: Andy Campbell56, lives near Cambridge with wife and 2 sons, has 3 grandchildren.
Company: Stagecoach Cambridgeshire
Position: Managing Director
Career: Apprentice mechanic, Leeds City Transport. By 1969, engineering director Leeds City Transport. Operations Director at First Leeds. Financial Director during restructuring at Mainline. Managing Director at First West Yorkshire. As MD, introduced one of Britain’s first smartcard schemes and oversaw implementation of South Yorkshire Guided Busway. Joined Stagecoach Cambridgeshire in January 2004 as Managing Director.
Other interests: Keeping fit

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